Shared receive path for simultaneous received signals

• US 20040142723A1
• Filed: 01/21/2003
• Published: 07/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Shippee, Geoffrey
• Granted Patent: US 7,260,416 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/552.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/406 with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed for a wireless communication device to simultaneously receive at least two signals. Two receiver portions are provided in the wireless communication device. A first receiver portion is configured to receive a first communication signal. A second receiver portion is configured to receive a second communication signal. The two receiver portions are configured to convert the first and second communication signals to a common frequency band. The common frequency band may be an intermediate frequency band or baseband frequency band. The converted first and second communication signals are combined in the common frequency band using an adder or other signal combiner. The combined signal is processed in a single signal processor. The communication device is able to resolve each of the received signals when the first communication signal is a narrowband signal and the second communication signal is a wideband signal, such as a spread spectrum signal.

Claims

1. A wireless device comprising:

a first receiver portion configured to convert a first signal to a first converted signal in a first frequency band;

a second receiver portion configured to convert a second signal to a second converted signal in a second frequency band, wherein the first and second frequency bands at least partially overlap;

a combiner configured to combine the first converted signal with the second converted signal into a combined signal; and

a signal processor configured to process the combined first and second converted signals to extract information from the first converted signal.

2. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the signal processor also processes the combined signal to extract information from the second converted signal.

3. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the first converted signal and the second converted signal are baseband signals.

4. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the first converted signal and the second converted signal are intermediate frequency signals.

5. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the signal processor comprises an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC).

6. The wireless device of claim 5, wherein the signal processor further comprises a baseband processor coupled to an output of the ADC, the baseband processor configured to extract information from an first converted signal component of the combined signal.

7. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the first signal has a bandwidth of less than 250 KHz.

8. The wireless device of claim 7, wherein the second signal has a bandwidth of greater than 1 MHz.

9. The wireless device of claim 7, wherein the second signal has a bandwidth of greater than 3.8 MHz.

10. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the first signal is a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) signal.

11. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the second signal is a spread spectrum signal.

12. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the second signal is a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) signal.

13. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the first signal is a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) signal.

14. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the second signal is a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) signal.

15. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the combiner sums the first converted signal with the second converted signal.

16. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is a phone.

17. A method of processing received signals, the method comprising:

converting a received first signal to a first converted signal in a first frequency band;

converting a second signal to a second converted signal in a second frequency band, at least a portion of the first frequency band overlapping a portion of the second frequency band;

combining the first converted signal with the second converted signal; and

processing the combined first and second converted signal to extract information contained in at least one of the first and second signal.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein converting the received first signal comprises downconverting a received Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) signal to a first baseband signal.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein converting the received first signal comprises downconverting a received Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) signal to a first Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein converting the received second signal comprises downconverting a received Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) signal to a second baseband signal.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein converting the received second signal comprises downconverting a received Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) signal to a second Intermediate Frequency (IF) signal.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein combining the first converted signal with the second converted signal comprises summing the first converted signal with the second converted signal.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein processing the combined first and second converted signal comprises:

converting the combined first and second converted signal to a combined digital signal;

demodulating the received first signal using the combined digital signal; and

demodulating the received second signal using the combined digital signal.

24. A wireless device comprising:

means for converting a received first signal to a first converted signal in a first frequency band;

means for converting a second signal to a second converted signal in a second frequency band, at least a portion of the first frequency band overlapping a portion of the second frequency band;

means for combining the first converted signal, with the second converted signal; and

means for processing the combined first and second converted signal.

25. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied thereon, the processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method of processing received signals, the method comprising:

programming a first oscillator to convert a received first signal to a first converted signal in a first frequency band;

programming a second oscillator to convert a second signal to a second converted signal in a second frequency band, at least a portion of the first frequency band overlapping a portion of the second frequency band; and

processing a combined signal comprising the first converted signal combined with the second converted signal.